Digital Justice Development Grants

The American Council of Learned Societies invites applications for Digital Justice Development Grants, a private grant program made possible by the Mellon Foundation. Formed in 1919, ACLS is a nonprofit federation of 86 scholarly organizations and represents scholarship in the humanities and social sciences with a core belief that knowledge is a public good. The program addresses inequities in access to tools and support for digital work among scholars across fields, projects working with under-utilized or understudied source materials, and institutions with less support for digital projects. It seeks to broaden participation in the digital transformation of humanistic inquiry while promoting inclusion, sustainability, and equitable approaches to digital scholarship. Digital Justice Development Grants support projects that critically engage with the interests and histories of people of color and other historically marginalized communities through the ethical use of digital tools and methods. These communities include, but are not limited to, Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities; people with disabilities; and queer, trans, and gender nonconforming people. Supported projects should advance beyond the prototyping or proof-of-concept phase and articulate subsequent financial, technological, and intellectual phases of development. Projects may cultivate new sources of knowledge and approaches to content building and dissemination and undertake capacity-building activities, including training students in digital humanities methods, developing technological infrastructure with community partners, and connecting scholars across academic and cultural heritage institutions. Grant recipients also receive general financial planning coaching from the Nonprofit Finance Fund to help them consider long-term financial options for their digital projects. Awards range from $50,000 to $100,000. Grant terms must begin between July 1, 2027 and December 31, 2027, and the workplan must last 12 to 18 months. Grant funds may support expenses such as equipment or software, graduate or undergraduate research assistants, conferences, round tables, or focus groups. Institutional indirect costs or overhead are not covered, although direct administrative costs such as office expenses and an honorarium for office assistance are allowed. The budget may identify cost-sharing measures from the host institution or a third party when applicable, but no required matching contribution is stated. ACLS grants do not support projects whose sole or primary focus is the production of creative works such as novels or films, textbooks, straightforward translations, or purely pedagogical projects. At least one principal investigator must be a scholar in the humanities and/or interpretative social sciences. Eligible projects must demonstrate significant preliminary work and a record of engagement and impact with scholarly and/or public audiences. An institution of higher education in the United States must administer awarded funds. Projects must make their work as widely available as intellectual property constraints allow, ideally under the most liberal appropriate open-source and Creative Commons licenses. Applicants must commit to making grant-funded software available under an open-source license and in a public repository, making digital content broadly available, avoiding infringement of third-party rights, and reporting to ACLS on compliance with intellectual property commitments. Creators retain intellectual property ownership rights in software, digital products, and content created with ACLS grant support. The application includes nine narrative prompts covering the project's history and engagement with historically marginalized communities, proposed development activities, digital tools and methods, digital deliverables and intellectual contributions, audiences and beneficiaries, community partnerships, institutional technology and staffing support, contributions to the broader digital scholarship ecosystem, and data ethics including management, security, and stewardship. Applicants must also provide a bibliography of no more than one page, a project timeline of no more than one double-spaced page, a budget of no more than one page, a budget description of no more than one double-spaced page, and project staffing information of no more than two double-spaced pages. Institutional Verification must be submitted separately through the ACLS online portal by an appropriate senior institutional official. Applicants must opt into the Intellectual Property Agreement as part of eligibility confirmation. A community partner statement of support of no more than one double-spaced page is required when applicable, and applicants may include a one-page appendix for relevant photos or other visuals. Eligible proposals are peer reviewed for their critical engagement with historically marginalized communities through ethical digital methods; the feasibility of development, extension, or renewal plans; consideration of sunsetting and data stewardship where appropriate; and analysis of technological, financial, and institutional supports and gaps. Reviewers also consider the project's potential to strengthen the ecosystem of digital scholarship, the clarity of engagement with audiences and beneficiaries, and the strategic use and anticipated impact of specific digital tools, methods, and deliverables. These criteria make the project's equity and justice commitments, development feasibility, sustainability planning, audience engagement, and clearly articulated digital outcomes central elements of evaluation. Applications are currently being accepted and must be submitted through the ACLS Online Fellowship and Grant Administration system at ofa.acls.org no later than 5:00 PM Eastern Standard Time on November 3, 2026. No separate letter of intent, concept paper, or other pre-application gating requirement is stated. Notifications will be sent by email in spring 2027. Awarded grant terms must begin between July 1 and December 31, 2027, with workplans lasting 12 to 18 months. No recurring or annual application schedule is stated in the supplied material. Program inquiries may be directed to digitaljustice@acls.org. ACLS is located at 633 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017-6706, and its listed telephone number is 212-697-1505.

Demonstrate substantive and ethical engagement with the interests and histories of historically marginalized communities; clearly connect digital tools and methods to intellectual contributions and equity and justice; provide feasible development, extension, or renewal plans and address data stewardship or intentional sunsetting where appropriate; identify technological, financial, and institutional support gaps and explain how grant funds address them; show how the project strengthens the digital scholarship ecosystem; clearly identify audiences and beneficiaries and how they are engaged; define strategic digital methods, deliverables, and anticipated impact.